The X Games debut in Sacramento, with city officials eyeing a significant economic boost from thousands of fans and potential long-term benefits for local tourism.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The X Games are making their Sacramento debut this weekend, but city leaders say the biggest opportunity may be the economic boost the event is expected to bring.
The first stop of the new X Games League will take over Cal Expo, with thousands of fans expected to attend as the world’s top BMX riders and skateboarders compete.
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For Sacramento, officials say the benefits extend well beyond the competition.
“We’re looking for cities that have dense populations of action sports fans,” Cherie Cohen, global chief revenue officer for X Games, said. “California is a state we’ve been coming to for about 21 years. Then we look at the venue capabilities to host all of the competitive events. This is a very unique venue here at Cal Expo.”
Those factors helped make Sacramento the first stop of the new X Games League.
Visit Sacramento expects the event to generate a significant economic impact as visitors stay in local hotels, dine at restaurants and support area businesses.
“I think it’s going to be a great boost for the local economy while they’re here over the weekend, with people again, not just locals, but people coming in from out of town to stay in our hotels and eat in our restaurants and visit our small businesses,” David Eadie, chief sports and entertainment officer for Visit Sacramento, said.
Visit Sacramento said preliminary projections estimate the event’s economic impact could reach into the millions.
Cohen said boosting tourism was one of the organization’s goals when bringing the event to Sacramento.
“We’re hoping to boost the local tourism significantly through hotel stays in the thousands, right, hopefully tens of thousands,” Cohen said. “Certainly, that trickles over to bars and restaurants and all the local businesses that support downtown and other areas where we’re hosting fans.”
Eadie said more than 5,000 hotel rooms are already expected to be filled because of the event.
Officials also said tickets are nearly sold out.
“We’re just about sold out, which is a great problem to have,” Cohen said. “So we do expect a packed house. We could see 20,000-plus each day. And we have the evening concerts as well.”
Cohen said X Games also worked to hire local security companies, vendors, food trucks and production crews, providing another economic benefit to the community.
Beyond the weekend, Visit Sacramento hopes hosting the internationally recognized event will continue building the city’s reputation as a destination for major sports and entertainment events.
“It’s again an internationally known brand and it really kind of continues to build on that momentum Sacramento has in the event space,” Eadie said. “We’re really on a roll with our sports entertainment, and so this is just another positive stride in that direction.”
Officials said the final economic impact will not be known until after the event, when X Games and Visit Sacramento analyze attendance and spending data. They said early indicators are encouraging.
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